Top Players Converge on Ojai Again

Tennis takes center court this week in Ojai, where the No. 1-ranked college men’s singles player, the best collegiate women’s team and the top college prospect in the country will converge and compete today through Sunday in the 106th Ojai Valley tournament.

Neither UCLA junior Benjamin Kohlloeffel, the top player in Intercollegiate Tennis Assn. singles rankings, nor prized USC recruit Sam Querrey, however, will be competing in the divisions that might be expected.

The left-handed Kohlloeffel will play for the Pacific 10 Conference doubles title with junior teammate Philipp Gruendler in an effort to save himself for the NCAA regional championships May 13-15 rather than attempt to become the Bruins’ first conference singles champion since Marcin Matkowski in 2003. Pac-10 individual championships take place in conjunction with the Ojai tournament.

“I want to do well in team competition,” Kohlloeffel said. “If you play bad in an individual tournament, you’re only hurting yourself. But when you play bad in team competition, it hurts everybody else too.”

Poor play hasn’t been a problem so far.

Kohlloeffel, a 24-year-old from Herne, Germany, is 19-3 in dual matches and 37-4 overall, including a 22-1 mark against ranked opponents. His only loss was a 6-3, 6-4 setback against No. 11 Conor Niland of California on April 8. Kohlloeffel and Gruendler are ranked second nationally in doubles.

The No. 1-ranked Stanford women’s team brings junior Theresa Logar, the Pac-10 singles runner-up the last two years, and 2005 doubles winner Alice Barnes to Ojai, along with a dual-match winning streak that stands at 80 victories in a row since an NCAA finals loss to Florida in 2003.

Querrey, a Thousand Oaks High senior who has committed to USC but is thinking about turning professional, will skip the boys’ interscholastic division competition for the second year in a row.

He will be top seeded in the men’s open singles draw, where last year he drew a crowd before falling in the quarterfinals to Cecil Mamiit, an ATP tour pro.

Querrey took ATP tour pro James Blake to three sets before losing in the second round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells and this year has become a practice partner for U.S. Davis Cup team members.